Waziristan drone strike kills 4 including Arabs

ISLAMABAD (PAN): Four suspected militants were killed in a drone strike, the first since November, in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghanistan border, officials said on Wednesday.

Two missiles were fired from the CIA-operated aircraft into a house in the Chashma Pul area, five kilometres from Miranshah, in the predawn attack, political administration official Taslim Khan said.

Four militants, including three foreigners, were killed in the raid that came after a pause of months, he told Pajhwok Afghan News. Three of the dead were Arab fighters, one intelligence source said, without giving details.

A local journalist, Malik Mumtaz, said the building caught fire and was destroyed as a result of the strike, scaring area residents. The pilotless plane had been hovering over the area for the past three days, he added.

Drone attacks were halted after NATO helicopters targeted two Pakistani security posts in the Salala area of Mohmand Agency, killing 24 soldiers and injuring more than a dozen others on Nov. 26, 2011. The CIA conducted its last drone attack in Pakistan on Nov. 16.

Soon after the Salala raid, Pakistan stopped supplies to Afghanistan-based foreign troops through the Torkham border and gave the US a 15-day ultimatum to vacate Shamsi Air Base in Balochistan province.